pissaldiere

This Saturday we had our annual Christmas party, many of the same people were coming that went to the retirement party last week so I had to make some different dishes.  I also wanted to make food that could be eaten with fingers or toothpicks and I did not want to spend the entire day cooking so I chose things that were not time consuming.

This recipe is one version of what is sometimes called Provencal pizza.  It can be made with a bread dough or puff pastry, I chose puff pastry as I was already making foccacia two ways.

1 package of puff pastry
6 small onions thinly sliced
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves
1 can of anchovies
About 20 pitted nicoise olives



Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan then add the onions.

 cook on low heat stirring occasionally until they are golden brown, this will take about 20 minutes. You will have to increase the frequency of stirring the closer they are to being done.

Half way done

When the onions are caramelized stir in the thyme, put aside and prepare the pastry.  I used the same pastry I used for the cheese straws so no need to roll out.  I just cut the sheet of pastry in half.  Score the pastry around the edge leaving about 1/2 inch border.

Place 1/3 of the caramelized onions in to the centre of the pastry leaving the border clear.  Place the anchovies in a criss cross pattern over the onion and put an olive in the centre of each diamond shape that is formed.  Here a picture tells a thousand words.

Ready to bake

I used white anchovies which are milder than the regular but both work well.  If you have an aversion to anchovies or just want to mix it up a little you can add very thinly sliced tomatoes instead.

Alternate version

Bake in 350 oven for about 15 minutes until the pastry is golden and crispy.

Just before serving into slices about 2" wide.

These are very tasty and require no last minute work. This can also be served along with a green salad as  a light meal.